Month: January 2007

I have recently raised a legal issue with the introduction of the new Skype’s connection fee. In the “Terms of Service” it is written:

Change of tariffs. Skype may change the tariffs at any time by giving a thirty (30) day notice of such change on the website www.skype.com/go/rates or, in the case of SkypeIn or Voicemail, by stating new tariffs in connection with your purchase of either product. If you do not wish to accept such adjustment of tariffs, you may ask for a refund of your Skype credits. The new tariff will apply to your next purchase after the adjustments have been published on the website. You agree that by continuing to purchase Skype products following the adjustments of the tariffs, you accept the new tariffs.

Just let me repeat this phrase:

“The new tariff will apply to your next purchase after the adjustments have been published on the website.”

I haven’t done any new purchase, and I am being charged already with this connection fee! When I bought my credit, this fee was not even announced. Skype already has the money of all the users and they decided that the tarification wasn’t anymore the same. The least I would expect from such a drastic change would be an email communication, it’s true, it’s not in the user agreement, but I think it is the right action to take since most of the users are not aware of it.

Up to now this is the only feedback that I have received from them:

luisgerman – this question about the terms was also brought up in the forums, I’m checking with our legal team.

There is something not working well in this company to get this kind of response!

Up to now I’ve been a fierce fan of skype, It was, for me, impressing the way how they grew in such a short period of time and how they called the attention of thousands of developers to integrate applications. Skype has now became a huge ecosystem and target of new business models.

What happened with all this great revolutionary concept? We would have to remember that Skype was bought by Ebay, and since then, the interests have changed. Ebay primary interest is, for sure, not to get the whole world talk for free. This “communist” concept of the P2P is not dominated by ebay. The ideal has been gone with it’s creators that are now concentrated in the launch of a revolutionary internet P2P tv service.

But, why do I say all these things? It happens that last month, Skype announced that they would introduce a disruptive pricing plan. I was so curious about their next move, up to then every single new released exited me so much, that I was pushed to write articles with thumbs up and wondering about the future. Well, today I was pushed again to write, but for totally the opposite reasons.

Skype, as any vulgar cell phone company, introduced a connection fee of 4 cents for every call made with the Skype Out. Basically it means that for a normal call in Europe that in former times coasted around 2 cents/min, now you have to add this connection fee. That makes a one min call 3 times more expensive. Wow! how disruptive! Where is this going to? What happened with “The whole world can talk for free”? So, now after the people bought their Skype phones and all their hardware that just work with Skype, they raise the prices just because they know that people is tied up and won’t switch so easily.

Is sad to say, but all of you that are thinking on buying any Skype harware should think it twice. Other companies such as VoIPBuster, offer free calls to most of the European countries and the US. Skype as a leader of the Internet calling companies have the efficiency to offer the best tariffs, but nevertheless it is the most expensive one nowadays. I see it coming, the day when they announce the next disruptive pricing scheme, and I wouldn’t be so inaccurate to think about them charging the on-net calls. I’m switching now 🙁 … see you on VoipBuster, or Jajah or any other. why paying more if the quality is roughly the same?